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S-90 Express Completes New Flight Test Program
Following the addition of a number of enhancements to the Express S-90, the aircraft, was subjected to extensive flight testing. A new cruise speed 185 knots at 75 percent power was established for the four place, fixed gear aircraft. That represents an increase of 10 knots over the previously published cruise speed. The aircraft is powered by a Lycoming IO540K1G5 300 horsepower engine that turns a Hartzell three blade constant speed propeller.
The S-90 has far more room and better performance than a Bonanza, even though it has fixed gear," said company president Larry Olson. "It also flies further, with more comfort and better visibility. That's one of the reasons the Express has attracted so many professional people." For further information on the Express Aircraft, contact the factory at (360) 273-8907; fax (360) 273-9780 or write them at PO Box 236, Olympia, WA 98507-0236.  |
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Express Moves Operations to Consolidate
The Express Aircraft Company has moved its operations from Olympia to Rochester, WA. The change brings administrative and manufacturing operations together and allows for an expansion of facilities. The new location is at 5845 193rd Avenue, Rochester, WA 98579. The Express Aircraft Company's mailing address is PO Box 236, Olympia, WA 98507-0236. Their new phone number is (360) 273-8907 and the fax is (360) 273-9780. |
Plans, Materials available for Steve Wittman's Formula V Racer
The Formula V racer is a single seat, midwing taildragger, that features a welded steel tube fuselage, wooden wing structure and fabric covering on all surfaces. Power comes from a 1600 cc Volkswagen engine and optional plans for a prop shaft extension, which Wittman also developed are available along with the airframe blueprints. With an empty weight of just over 400 pounds and a mere 75 square feet of wing area, the Wittman Formula V will pass 150 mph and burn only 3 gallon of auto gas per hour! Plans for the V-Witt Racer aircraft sell for $95 and the VW Prop Shaft Extension plans go for $25. They can be ordered by calling Aircraft Spruce at (800) 824-1930 (overseas : 909.372.9555); fax : (909) 372-0555; or write the company at 225 Airport Circle, Corona, CA 91720. |
Eagle Biplane Celebrates Twenty years as a Standard Setter in the Kitplane Industry
Airplane kits have been around since 1911 when Glenn Curtiss began marketing his Pusher in kit form. Essentially, he provided a basic materials package, a set of plans and his blessings. In the 1960s and early 70s, there were a considerable number of aircraft designs that anyone could buy a set of plans for, prior to setting out to find the required materials. It was called scratchbuilding. Frequently, for every hour of actual aircraft construction time, the builder invested two or three hours looking for materials or a part. By 1970 a few companies had begun manufacturing some of the more difficult parts required in the more popular designs, and others began offering semi-complete materials packages. But Frank Christianson changed all that in late 1978 when he published a photograph of a man in a lab coat, standing on a runway amid all the prefabricated parts, hardware, and additional materials needed to complete a Christen Eagle. It was obvious that everything needed to build the entire aircraft would be shipped in a series of kits, which could be purchased individually or as a complete group. A lot of people looked at that photo and ordered a kit. Kit building looked a whole lot easier. It was not long before there were imitators. Other designs soon appeared in complete kit form, also claiming to save time and effort. Today there are several hundred aircraft designs to choose from, all of which are sold as complete kits. They range from single seat to six seats, from max speeds of 50 mph to over 350 mph. The kitplane has had a dramatic impact on completions. Far more kits get to the flightline than scratchbuild projects. This has resulted in dramatically higher numbers of amateur built aircraft in the FAA registry. Nearly 900 Eagle kits have been sold over the past two decades and though no one knows for sure, it is probably reasonable to assume that about ½ have been completed. The Eagle II was designed as a two-place aerobatic competition aircraft, though there have been a limited number of single seaters built. Christen Industries (now a part of Aviat Aircraft) built three single place models of the Eagle for the world's most famous airshow formation team, the Christen Eagles, which included Charlie Hillard, Tom Poberezny and Gene Soucy. Eagle II biplances are frequently seen at contests sanctioned by the International Aerobatic Club and in airshows around the world. They cruise at 165 mph, stall at 63, have a range of 380 miles with 25 gallons of fuel. Empty, the Eagle II weighs 1125 pounds and at gross it tips the scales at 1578 pounds. It is still possible to purchase and Eagle II kit through Aviat Aircraft. Includes in the kits are everything right down to the last nut, bolt and washer. The price is $74,000, plus engine and prop. The Eagle II information package costs $ 10 and can be ordered by calling (307) 886-3151; fax (307) 886-9674; or write Aviat at PO Box 1240, Afton, WY 83111. E-mail : aviat@silverstar.com. www.AviatAircraft.com. |
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Useful Load in Pitts S-2C Increased to over 500 Pounds for Aerobatics
The Federal Aviation Administration has approved a 75 pound gross weight increase for the Pitts S-2C. Production line aircraft, which are 50 pounds lighter than the prototype, have a useful load for aerobatics of over 500 pounds. The empty weight of the S-2C is 1195 pounds, and with the STC the gross weight for aerobatic maneuvering has been raised to 1700 pounds.
The Pitts Special S-2C was introduced this past winter as the leading edge example of aerobatic aircraft technology. It can be flown solo or dual through sequences utilizing every competitive aerobatic maneuver known to man, including all the new gyroscopic and tumbling feats so popular in airshows. Where the aircraft really shines is in the vertical lines that can be drawn, rolling all the way. A good part of the performances is credited to a new composite propeller from Hartzell, dubbed "The Claw' at Aviat. With a roll rate well in excess of 300 degrees per second, the new S-2C is clearly in the blur range. The company reports that orders have surpassed all Pitts Special sales activity in the past few years. For free aircraft and dealer information on the Pitts Specials in production, contact Aviat Aircraft at (307) 886-3151; fax (307) 886-9674, or write them at PO Box 1149, Afton, WY 83110, USA. E-mail address is aviat@silverstar.com and their website is www.AviatAircraft.com. |
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Pilotslounge.com brings the Aviation Resource Centre to the Internet.
Pilotslounge.com announced the launch of their new Internet Web Site devoted to assisting airline pilots, aspiring airline pilots and general aviation pilots alike. The site is all aviation and it has department such as, aviation sales and an on-line store where pilots can purchase all their pilot supplies and other aviation items with a credit card right off of the Internet. The on-line store is setup on a secure server (SSL) to ensure the confidentiality of the customers order, personal and credit card information. The products in the store are supplied by all the major aviation suppliers, Cencal Aviation Products, ASA, Gleim Publications, Jeppesen, David Clark, Magellan, Garman and many more.. they offer a 30 day no questions asked money back guarantee on all products in the store. Pilotslounge.com will ship to any address in the world. The airline interview profiles section has all the information the aspiring airline pilot could want on Part 121,135 airlines and corporate flight departments (US and international), airline address and contact person, the airlines minimum hiring requirements for pilots, the type and content of the written tests given by the airlines in their interview process as well as the simulator profile you can expect and the type of simulator used by each airline. The aviation employment section has all categories of aviation employment advertisements from airlines and corporate flight departments worldwide, these are updated on a daily bases. Aviation employers worldwide are encouraged to submit their help wanted ad's FREE! There is no charge for submitting an advertisement, they can be submitted on-line from the web site, they can be emailed to captainrick@worldnet.att.net or they can be faxed to (714) 636-7360. The web page can be located at http://www.pilotslounge.com |
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The Olympic Museum, Lausanne celebrates its 5th birthday
The day the International Olympic Committee (IOC) inaugurated the extension to its headquarters in Vidy, the Olympic Museum celebrated its fifth birthday. The 23rd June is Olympic Day which commemorates every year the founding of the IOC in 1894 and the subsequent revival of the Olympic Games. For the Olympic Museum, these 1,824 days of activity have been very enriching and the prospects for the coming years are packed with developments and new initiatives. 
Some 990,000 people from 70 countries have visited the Museum, averaging
nearly 200,000 a year. A third of them are school children, a fact which
demonstrates the interest of youngsters in everything concerned with
sports, the Olympic Games and the Olympic Movement. The design, style and
organization of the Museum, which are diametrically opposed to those of
what have been called "temples of dust and boredom', undoubtedly have
something to do with it. At the Olympic Museum, thanks to its highly modern
interactive communication and exhibition resources, such as video and
computers, "the Games never stop", as the slogan proclaims.
In addition to the large and unique collection of Olympic items (torches, medals, posters, images, publications, stamps and coins) dating from ancient times to our day, and objects that belonged to famous sportsmen and -women (Jean-Claude Killy's skis and boots, Carl Lewis' shoes and thousands more), the Olympic Museum offers a permanent window on the Olympic Movement. Its catalogue currently contains 87,000 items. 
Art and culture keep company with the sporting spirit, through exhibitions,
permanent and temporary. A recorded commentary in French, English, German,
Spanish, Italian and even Japanese is available to guide the visitor. The
meeting rooms make the most of the superb location and so the Museum is an
attractive place to hold congresses and conferences.
The Olympic study centre comprises a library with over 15,000 volumes, a documentation service and historical archives containing 450 linear metres of written documents concerning the Olympic movement since its origins. The audiovisual archives contains over 13,000 hours of film and the photo library consists of 270,000 photos spanning the history of the modern Games from Athens 1896 to the recent Winter Games in Nagano in 1998. The educational programme offers a great variety of films and games. Finally the Olympic Museum is the ideal platform for the public relations vital to modern Olympism, which inevitably has to find a modus vivendi with the political and economic worlds. The numerous publications and the recent launch of an Internet website make a valuable contribution here. The life of the Olympic Museum is also punctuated by events: the Olympic weeks, which provide youngsters with an opportunity to discover sports; the activities of the Pyrsos club (Pyrsos, an anthropomorphic representation of an Olympic torch, is the Olympic Museum's mascot) or of the Friends of the Museum Association; the lectures and debates of the "Thursday at the Museum" cycle; classical music concerts; exhibition previews; the Games themselves, relayed on a giant screen (the opening, in particular, always attracts numerous sports fans); and forums and seminars of various kinds. The Olympic Museum also boasts a fine restaurant with a terrace that enjoys a truly exceptional view from the heart of the 22,000 m2 Olympic Park. The Park is studded with innumerable sculptures including works by artists such as Rembrandt Bugatti, Niki de Saint-Phalle, Eduardo Chillida, Fernando Botero, Jean-Michel Folon and Miguel Berrocal, a collection that has continued to grow; the shop, which occupies 140 m2 , offers an assortment of over 1,000 articles bearing the Olympic rings. In 1995, the Olympic Museum in Lausanne received the European Museum of the Year Award, a distinction awarded under the aegis of the Council of Europe. Some of the personalities who have visited the Olympic Museum International personalities :
In five years, the Olympic Museum in Lausanne has organized :
The Olympic Museum in Lausanne has published 23 catalogues or studies and 14 issues of Olympic Magazine; it has been involved in 17 joint publications. The Olympic Museum in Lausanne employs 66 staff. The proceeds of its operations total 6 million francs. |